Dufala Brothers

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The Dufala Brothers created a waste transfer station in the Edward Bok Vocational School in South Philadelphia. The station was conceived to recycle aluminum from local scrappers, to be repurposed by the artists to make art.

Steven and Billy Dufala practice in a variety of media, approaching sculpture, theater, performance, music, digital media, and drawing with equal passion and zeal. Their 2009 solo exhibition, Trophy, at Philadelphia’s Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, explored concepts of use-value, sentimentality, exaggeration, and shelf-life through an absurd and trash-picked lens. For the 2005 FringeArts Festival, they organized a now infamous race through the streets of Philadelphia, for which they built 14 tricycles made out of repurposed toilets. In 2004, they rode a cardboard tank across Philadelphia on city streets during rush hour, amazing pedestrians, puzzling motorists, and providing their audience a dose of dark, dark humor. In 2009, the Dufala Brothers were awarded the West Grand Prize, an international juried prize in its inaugural year. Both Dufala Brothers graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and they live and work in Philadelphia.

Sam Durant

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Sam Durant addressed the quagmire of criminal justice by placing a 40 x 40 foot maze made of chain link fencing in Thomas Paine Plaza, across the street from Philadelphia's City Hall. The public was invited to interact with the maze by hanging personal items on the structure, using it as a platform to address issues surrounding mass incarceration. The structure was initially transparent, and through public interaction with the art, became opaque. The maze functions as a double metaphor, symbolizing not only the struggle of criminals caught in the Department of Corrections but for how, as a society, we are all navigating the labyrinth of mass incarceration.

Sam Durant is a multimedia artist whose works engage a variety of social, political, and cultural issues. Often referencing American history, his work explores the varying relationships between culture and politics, engaging subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, southern rock music, and modernism. He has had solo museum exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany; S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium; and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand. Durant shows with several galleries, including Blum and Poe, Los Angeles; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City; Praz-Delavallade, Paris; and Sadie Coles Gallery, London. His work can be found in many public collections, such as the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Tate Modern, London; Project Row Houses, Houston; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Durant teaches art at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

Shepard Fairey

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Shepard Fairey came to Philadelphia to meet with inmates at Graterford SCI, members of the Guild (Mural Arts’ re-entry program for formerly incarcerated people), and others involved in Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice program. Based on this dialogue, he developed a series of images that kicked off a massive campaign designed to raise awareness about criminal justice. Going back to the origins of his Andre the Giant sticker, Shepard distributed stickers to the public for mass distribution, engaging in a participatory form of art. He also created two new murals in Philadelphia.

Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and received his BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. While at RISD, he created the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign. The OBEY GIANT imagery has changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. In 2009, Fairey’s portrait of Barack Obama was inducted into the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery as the official presidential portrait. Fairey has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including: the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.

Open Source eventsShepard Fairey on Jasper Johns - October 14Free License: Open Source in Art and Technology with Shepard Fairey and Rich Miner - October 15Philly DJ Mural Block Party Redux - October 16

JR

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JR is celebrated for his iconic black and white photographic murals. His striking images are enhanced by their strategic placement in public space. For Open Source, JR continued his exploration of immigration by pasting a monumental portrait of an otherwise unknown immigrant on a building in Philadelphia’s Center City. The mural, Migrants, Ibrahim, Mingora-Philadelphia, highlights the personal histories of the millions of anonymous immigrants who leave everything behind for a chance at a better life in this country. It depicts Ibrahim, a Philadelphia resident who immigrated to Philadelphia from Pakistan.

JR was born in France in 1983 and currently lives in Paris and New York City. Since 2000, JR has pasted his large-scale photographs in streets throughout the world as a method of exploring personal identity. By merging photography with street art, JR covers entire buildings, walls, streets and other unconventional surfaces with his wheatpasted portraits, creating what he calls “pervasive” art. His work addresses important social issues and gives a voice to the underrepresented. In 2011, JR won the TED Prize and launched Inside Out, an international participatory art project that allows people worldwide to get print and wheatpaste their own photographs. JR has had solo exhibitions at museums including the Dallas Contemporary and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and his posters have been installed outdoors in multiple continents: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Ernel Martinez & Keir Johnston

La Frontera, Ernel Martinez & Keir Johnston's Open Source project, was open from 11-2 p.m., every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in October, at the intersection of N 8th Street and Susquehanna Avenue.

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The Philadelphia-based artists converted a warehouse on 8th Street and Susquehanna into a community center dedicated to capturing stories of migration and immigration into Philadelphia. Information from the captured histories were rendered visually inside and outside the building. The goal of the center was to bridge the African American and Hispanic communities that are divided by the 5th Street corridor through sharing of personal histories. The community was brought together through a series of lively events highlighting the culture of both groups such as music, food, and art.

Ernel Martinez was born in Belize and was raised in South Central Los Angeles and Detroit. He holds a BFA from Kutztown University and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2003, Martinez has been producing public art in the city of Philadelphia, and has worked with various nonprofits and social services to provide art to disenfranchised youth. In 2011, Martinez helped to found AMBER Art & Design, a collective of five Philadelphia-based public artists. His practice focuses on creative methods that give urban communities the tools to tell their stories through art making. Martinez uses their stories as a framework to produce social practice artwork that engages and builds dialogue.

Keir Johnston studied fine art at California State University at Northridge, and painted his first mural at the age of 18. He has been involved in the production of over 30 large-scale murals throughout the country, and is a founding member of AMBER Art & Design, a collective of five Philadelphia-based public artists. He has worked collaboratively in the production of murals with life inmates at state penitentiaries, the elderly, students, youth at detention centers, the mentally and physically disabled, and the general public. Through his art practice, Johnston acts as an advocate for social issues and community groups.

Open Source events:North Philly Block Party / Norte de Filadelfia Block Party - October 18La Frontera - October 21

MOMO

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Using Practical Geometry, a technique used by masons and carpenters to render geometric shapes, MOMO has developed a methodology for creating abstract art. Over the summer, MOMO taught his methodology to students in Mural Arts’ Art Education program, and then painted a mural with the students, using the same techniques. The workshops were complemented by creating “how-to” videos that instructs others on implementing the practice. In October, youth from the Art Education classes will teach MOMO’s techniques to the general public.

MOMO is an artist who works outdoors with systems and homemade tools. His current interests lie within an evolving range of adapted masonry techniques, which he implements to draft, design, and organize murals. Born in San Francisco in 1974, MOMO has traveled for most of his life; he lived in New York for six years and currently keeps a studio in New Orleans. In 2008, Rojo published his first monograph “3AM-6AM,” and in 2012, Studio Cromie published his second, “In 74 Pieces.” In 2013, he worked with Re+Public Lab to develop a fully augmented reality mural in St. Louis, and New Orleans’ May Gallery hosted his immersive installation show Butt Joints. In addition that year, Studio Cromie produced a Caribbean painting tour and exhibition in Southern Italy, and the New York DOT commissioned a 200-foot-long mural between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Jonathan Monk

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Jonathan Monk created two temporary skateable sculptures based on concrete works by the minimalist master Sol LeWitt, which have been installed in Paine’s Park and will remain there through November 2015. These large sculptures are unusual, interactive additions to the park, inviting skaters of all ages to touch, step, and skate upon their surfaces – public artworks that invite direct, physical interaction from the viewer. Monk’s Open Source project exemplifies his practice of reinterpreting works of conceptual art through humor, and challenges the typically precious nature of art objects.

British artist Jonathan Monk replays, recasts, and re-examines seminal works of conceptual and minimal art by variously witty, ingenious, and irreverent means. Speaking in 2009, he said, “Appropriation is something I have used or worked with in my art since starting art school in 1987. At this time (and still now) I realized that being original was almost impossible, so I tried using what was already available as source material for my own work.” Through wall paintings, monochromes, ephemeral sculpture, and photography, he reflects on the tendency of contemporary art to devour references, simultaneously paying homage to figures such as Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman, and Lawrence Weiner, while demystifying the creative process.

Odili Donald Odita

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Odili Donald Odita addressed the social struggles faced by Philadelphia and the vital role that is played by community organizations such as Mural Arts in keeping the city thriving. Odita’s mural highlights the active role that citizens and organizations play in filling the institutional voids present in underserved neighborhoods. The weaving of color and form represents the fabric of institutions and residents whose joint involvement and commitment make Philadelphia a vibrant community. Odita presents the tension of contradiction and opportunity found in “calamity and potential”.

Odili Donald Odita was born in 1966 in Enugu, Nigeria and lives and works in Philadelphia. He received a Penny McCall Foundation Grant in 1994, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant in 2001, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant in 2007. Also in 2007, his large installation Give Me Shelter was featured prominently in the 52nd Venice Biennale exhibition Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind. He has had solo exhibitions in museums and institutions including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita. Odita has been commissioned to paint many large-scale wall installations, most recently at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York (2011), Savannah College of Art and Design (2012), and the New Orleans Museum of Art (2011).

Michelle Angela Ortiz

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Michelle Angela Ortiz is continuing her commitment to addressing immigrant rights with Familias Separadas. She has created a series of stenciled portraits and phrases derived from interviews with immigrants living in Philadelphia that have been directly affected by deportations. The stencils are being made in collaboration with the JUNTOS youth group and placed in key locations throughout the city. The recorded oral histories are available online for the public to access. Members of the public will also be able to add their own stories to the collection.

Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist, muralist, and community arts educator based in Philadelphia. She uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform “blighted” spaces, producing visual affirmations that reveal the strength and spirit of the community. Ortiz has designed and created over 30 large-scale public works around the world. She is a fellow of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Fund for the Arts (2011), and a recipient of the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award (2008) and two Art & Change Grants (2012 & 2006). She holds a BFA from Moore College of Art & Design and a Master's Degree in the science of arts and cultural management from Rosemont College.

Jennie Shanker

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Jennie Shanker created a mural that serves as a marker to remind people of the soon-to-be-demolished Norris Homes in North Philadelphia. The mural depicts the facades of the Norris Homes on the SEPTA retaining walls near the homes. Aside from the mural acting as a memorial, the memory of the Norris Homes will live on through a website created and maintained by the artist. Shanker worked with the residents of the home and local community center to populate the site with content from the community.

Originally from New York, Jennie Shanker has lived and worked as an artist in Philadelphia since 1982. She has served as an exhibition consultant for Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, worked on multiple community revitalization projects in North Philadelphia with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and was a founding member of Philadelphia’s Vox Populi Gallery. She currently teaches at Tyler School of Art and the University of the Arts. Shanker’s recent project, The Marcellus Clay Experiment, has led her to an interest in developing work that examines contentious current events where reductive, ideological, and political stances have degraded the potential for important, nuanced discussions. Shanker is interested in generating space for access, information, dialogue, and understanding.

Shinique Smith

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Shinique Smith worked with students participating in the Mural Arts Art Education program to create a mural-based amphitheater that will function as a venue for student performances. In her own words: “I want to create a mural on the wall and on the ground of a playground or recreational center in Philadelphia. The artwork served as a backdrop and stage for interaction with Philadelphia youth wherein these teens may plan and/or participate in events that give them a forum to share their creative voices through poetry and spoken word, among their peers.”

Shinique Smith was born in 1971 in Baltimore, Maryland, and now lives and works in upstate New York. She earned both her BFA and MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her MAT from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Smith was featured in the2005 International Istanbul Biennialand in the Rubell Family Collection’s famed 30 Americans. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Smith’s work is included in several prestigious permanent collections, including the Brooklyn Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

SWOON

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In an effort to help those struggling with substance abuse, SWOON worked with Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice program to develop an understanding of the conditions and context of trauma that lead to and perpetuate lifelong addiction. In collaboration with Jessica Radovich, a mental health counselor and yoga instructor, SWOON developed a series of classes that help address trauma as it relates to addiction and loss. The classes took place in Graterford SCI, Interim House, and with the Mural Arts' Guild program. From this experience, she is developing a series of portraits that will appear in a public space.

Caledonia Curry, who exhibits her artwork under the name SWOON, is a classically trained visual artist and printmaker who has spent the last 14 years exploring the relationship between people and their built environments. Her early interventions in the urban landscape took the form of wheat-pasting portraits to the walls of cities around the world, and her public practice has expanded to using art to rebuild communities and humanize today’s most pressing social and environmental issues. She co-founded Konbit Shelter in 2010, an artist’s response to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti that same year. Other community-based endeavors include collaborating on the construction of musical architecture in New Orleans, and a neighborhood revitalization project in North Braddock, PA. Alongside her place-based work, she has a studio practice of drawing, printmaking, architectural sculpture, and installations. Curry’s work has been collected and shown internationally at galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the São Paulo Museum of Art.

Heeseop Yoon

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Heeseop Yoon created a large-scale public mural using her unique technique of rendering portraits of chaos using black masking tape on Mylar. Her mural is in Philadelphia’s iconic Italian Market, where she took a series of photographs and created a composition based on objects and personal items found in the neighborhood. Yoon portrays society through humanity’s accumulation of objects and the resulting clutter of consumption. Her technique does not employ traditional materials such as brushes or paint, and thereby pushes the possibilities of muralism.

Heeseop Yoon’s artwork deals with memory and perception within cluttered spaces. She begins by photographing interiors such as basements, workshops, and storage spaces: places where everything is jumbled and time becomes ambiguous without the presence of people. From these photographs she constructs a view and then draws freehand without erasing, creating drawings, collages, and large-scale installations. As she correct "mistakes," the work results in double or multiple lines, reflecting how her perception has changed over time. Yoon holds a BFA from Chung-Ang University, Seoul and an MFA from City College of New York. Her selected solo exhibitions include the John and June Allcott Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Smack Mellon, New York; Arario Seoul, Seoul, Korea; and Triple Candie, New York.